Review: Pyramid Snow Cap Winter Ale

Author: Jason Harris
December 17, 2011


Pyramid Brewing used to be one of my favorite breweries because it was local when I lived in Seattle for a short time long ago. However, I’ve had a few of their beers in the last few years and they haven’t been all that great.

However, let’s take a fresh look at Pyramid as I focus on their Snow Cap Winter Warmer ale as a part of the winter/holiday ale series. Snow Cap Winter Warmer is a very dark amber ale that  has a very unique taste to it. Some winter ales, as beer fans know, are dark and very malty, however, Snow Cap continues this streak of a dark bodied amber combind with roasted chocolate-tasting malt to add extra zing and a hint of sweetness.

Snow Cap Winter Warmer utilizes three different malts including Caramel, Chocolate malt and barley combined with Willamette hops and a few others. It is 7.0 ABV and has a low IBU score of 47, meaning it isn’t very bitter at all.

Snow Cap pours a dark copper/amber color and has a frothy head at the top, a little too much for my taste. When you first sip Snow Cap, the beer’s amber flavor comes through with a nice hit of malted barley providing a somewhat chocolatey taste, but not too much. This isn’t a sweet beer, but a smooth one. After you swig it around, you can taste the hops kick in a little, providing some floral zing and finishing off with the hint of caramel.

This beer is very similar to Widmer Brrr, although not as sweet on the last bit of the drink. Snow Cap is excellent. This is by far the best beer I’ve ever had form Pyramid and has restored my faith in them…I’ll be looking for more Pyramid ales for review.

Do you have a Pyramid ale that you especially like?

Review: Pyramid Thunderhead IPA

Author: Jason Harris
September 3, 2010

Readers of this website know that I’m an IPA nut.  India Pale Ale is by far one of my favorite classes of beer, because of it’s tempting color, bold hop flavor, and smooth finish.

In that spirit, it’s time to conclude the batch of Pyramid brew reviews by checking out Thunderhead India Pale Ale.  As may have already seen, we’ve already checked out Pyramid’s Haywire Hefeweizen and Curve Ball Blonde Ale.

Looking at Thunderhead, this is a bold hoppy IPA.  The reddish-pale color makes you think this IPA might have a light flavor.  The beer has a gravity of 16.7, is 6.7% in alcohol and has an IBU rating of 67.

At my first sip, this beer has a moderate punch with it’s hoppy bitterness.  It won’t knock you off your stool like Hopyard Dog IPA from Pale Horse – and has more of a malt balance than some hop-heavy IPAs, but Thunderhead is flavorful. The aftertaste is pleasant and dissipates quickly.

I would recommend Thunderhead to those new to IPAs as it is a good middle-of-the-road IPA that any beer nut would love to sample.